Friday, March 08, 2013

Bill filed to depopulate Harris County Jail mental health wing through pilot program

creates a pilot program to reduce recidivism
of individuals with serious mental illness in the Harris County Jail,
which she says is regarded as the state’s largest mental health
facility. On any given day, 25 percent of the inmates receive
psychotropic medication. Hundreds of inmates with mental problems cycled
in and out of Harris County jail five or more times from 2011 to 2012
according to Huffman and confirmed to News 92 FM by Harris County
Sheriff Adrian Garcia, a Democrat.

“Keeping non-violent people with mental health issues out of our
jails is the fiscally and socially responsible thing to do,” said
Huffman. “It costs $137 per day to keep someone behind bars as opposed
to $12 per day for community mental health services. The majority of
these individuals in the Harris County Jail never received the services
they needed – services that probably would have kept them out of jail in
the first place.”

The multi-year pilot program is designed to
substantially reduce recidivism by incorporating a comprehensive array
of clinical and social support services – easy access to mental health
care, chemical dependence services, rehabilitation, and residential
housing opportunities. A major benefit of the program is that it takes
advantage of Harris County best practices and piggybacks onto existing
resources such as crisis intervention and response teams, along with
jail-based mental health services.

“As a former prosecutor and judge, I’ve
witnessed many stories of heartache involving families with mentally ill
loved ones,” Huffman said. “It’s time we erased the stigma of mental
illness. It is a medical problem that can be treated by proper care and
medicine.”

The legislation is "contingent on the continuing agreement of the Commissioners Court of Harris County to contribute $32,650,000 to the funding of the program each year in which the program operates," according to the filed version of the bill. The pilot program would expire after four years, prior to which the Department of State Health Services must issue a report on the results.

Notably, the Senate Finance Committee boosted mental health funding by $200 million, reported the Statesman's Mike Ward, restoring cuts from last session. Ward mentioned that the Finance committee approved "more money" for the Harris County pilot, but I can't tell if that's in addition to the $200 million or if they're talking about the money put up by the commissioners court.

4 comments:

“Keeping non-violent people with mental health issues out of our jails is the fiscally and socially responsible thing to do,” said Huffman.

Really? So violent people with mental health issues are supposed to sit in jail for months at a time without a trial, without their court attorney appointed attorney routinely visiting them all the while they urinate and deficate all over themselves.

This frick'n court appointed BS for attorneys who don't come to the jail but collect their fees and district judges who overlook it smacks of judicial misconduct.

Amen! I couldn't have said it better. We don't have less or more money. We have a broken, ignorant system that thinks the more money you put into the hands of service providers the better get. I can promise you, speaking from personal research and life experiences this does not work.

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"

- Rob Patterson, The Austin Post"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas."

- Texas Public Policy Foundation

"Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right"

David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"

"I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."

Kim Vickers,Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationGrits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."

Maurice Chammah,The Marshall Project"unrestrained and uneducated"

John Bradley,Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau

"our favorite blog"

- Texas District and County Attorneys Association Twitter feed"Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas."